Northern lights could be visible early Friday morning

6:52 PM,
Jan. 8, 2014

Written by

Elizabeth Weise
| USATODAY

The polar vortex may be gone, but another extreme event is coming. Space weather experts say northern states may be able to see the aurora borealis, or northern lights, Thursday and Friday morning.

"We're hoping," said Joe Kunches with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo. "The sun has done its part, it produced a fast, energetic eruption about the middle of the day Tuesday."

That eruption blew off a piece of the solar atmosphere that is winging its way toward Earth at a rate of 4.3 million mph, said Jeffrey Newmark, a solar ...